Syncronise cultivation brings new hope for paddy growers
With an aim to encourage community cultivation, increase paddy production with low labour and expenditure, the agricultural department has started 'syncronise cultivation' for Boro farming using modern agricultural technology which brings new hope for paddy growers.
The cultivation activities are going on to bring 50 acres of land together in an upazila of 61 districts of the country under the pilot project titled 'Syncronise cultivation' (somoloye chashabad).
Following the project's guideline, 50 acres of land in a crop field are being brought in Boro cultivation during the ongoing cultivation season at Dighia village in Ranishankoil upazila of Thakurgaon with incentives of Tk 12.12 lakh, said Sanjoy Devnath, upazila agriculture officer of Ranishankoil.
The ministry of agriculture is providing incentives to encourage community cultivation so that farmers plant their crops in a synchronised manner and ensure simultaneous harvest which helps to inspire mechanising farming for increasing crop yields reducing production cost.
In the current season, the agriculture ministry is providing fertilizer, seed, irrigation and harvesting support to farmers who have joined the community cultivation, said the officer.
The government plans to provide incentives to encourage community cultivation so that farmers can plant their crops in a synchronised manner and ensure simultaneous harvests for higher production with lower cost.
"This cultivation manner will improve crop productivity through mechanised tilling, transplantation and harvesting at the same time," said Dr Durrul Huda, chief scientific officer of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur.
This fragmented cultivation practice acts as a barrier to fully mechanising farming. For this, community cultivation is needed to increase crop yields and reduce the cost of production for farmers.
"If the farmers cultivate same variety of crop for the life-time in a field together, modern agricultural tools can be used easily which helps to get higher production with lower expenses and labour" he added.
Seedbed preparation
Sanjoy Devnath said the seedbed can be prepared in two ways----dry and mud seedbed.
For dry seedbed, sandy-loamy soil enriched with organic substances is good for preparing the seedbed on tray. The tray size could be 23 inches x 11 inches x 1 inches or 23 inches x 9 inches x 1 inches.
After collecting soil from land, it is to crash well and if needed it is to be sieving.
After preparing the soil properly, three-fourths of the tray should be filled with soil and then the seeds should be sprinkled on it. Then a light layer of soil should be given on the surface of the seed. If the weather gets cold and foggy, the seedbeds should be covered with polythene during night time.
A 100 gm to 110 gm hybrid seeds is needed for per tray. The seedlings would be ready for planting after 25 days.
Instead of iron trays the farmers can use polythene measuring the same size that is suitable for rice transplanter for planting seedlings.
Seed treatment
Before sowing the seeds in seed-beds, the seeds should be refined to resist attack of diseases. Mixing with 3 ML Amistertop or Seltima with one litre water the seeds should be kept under the mixture in a pot for twelve hours. Then taking from it the seeds is to be kept covering with sacks for 24 hours to 48 hours until germination.
After getting seedlings those will be transplanted through rice transplanter.
Sanjoy said in such process the expenses will be reduced drastically in comparison with traditional cultivation.
Replying to a query, he said only Tk 500 to Tk 600 is needed to plant seedlings on one bigha of land using rice-transplanter while Tk 1500 to Tk 2000 is needed for manual transplantation for the same land.
From seed transplantation to harvesting, Tk 4000 to Tk 5000 would be needed for community paddy cultivation while Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 is required for cultivating Boro paddy in each bigha of land.
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